Before Alexion could answer, Xirena started crawling up his chest, toward his shoulder. He jumped as her path burned him and caused him to shiver. "Xirena, stop moving!"
"Sorry, akri."
"Don't call me akri, Xirena. I'm not a control freak."
"You are good, quality people, Alexion. Xirena will sleep now."
"You two talking?" Danger asked.
"For only a second. She's going to sleep for a while." He rubbed his chest where Xirena now rested as a permanent part of his being. "Now I understand why Acheron jumps every now and again for no reason. Simi must be twitching on him."
Danger laughed. "I hope you don't start doing that. People around here might think you're having a seizure. Next thing you know, they'll be throwing you down on the ground and putting a stick in your mouth."
"Really?"
She laughed again. "No. C'mon, gullible. Let's go eat."
"So why aren't you eating this time?" Danger asked as they sat in a small family-owned Italian restaurant down the street from her house, looking over the menu.
"I told you, I can't taste anything."
She gave him a piercing glare. "C'mon, Alexion, don't lie to me. With the exception of the popcorn, you haven't eaten anything since you've been here, have you?"
He looked away from her.
Danger reached across the table and took his hand. She wanted an answer to this. "Please tell me the truth."
Alexion considered the ramifications of being honest with her. But then she wouldn't remember it, so why not? She already knew more than she should.
But what if it disgusted her?
Then again, that might be beneficial. She might find the truth so repellent that she'd leave him to do this alone, and not be in danger anymore.
He didn't know, but in the end, he found himself confiding in her. "Have you ever studied Greek myth at all?"
"A little."
Good, that would make this a little easier on him. "Do you remember when the heroes would travel to the Underworld what they had to do to be able to speak with Shades?"
She thought it over for a few minutes before she answered. "They made a blood sacrifice."
He braced himself mentally for her possible reaction. "And what did the Shade do with their sacrifice?"
Her face went pale as she realized the truth of him. "It drank the blood so that it could speak."
He nodded.
Danger sat there horrified at what he was telling her. "You live on blood?"
Again he nodded.
She went completely cold at the next thought that entered her mind. There was only one person he could feed from. Only one person he was ever around. "You drink Ash's blood?" .
"Yes."
"Ew!" she said, scooting her chair back. She had a horrible image in her head of the two of them feeding each other. "So you suck on Ash's neck?"
"Hell, no!" he said in an offended tone. "A, never in a million years-I'd rather be dead and tortured, and B, you go near that man's neck and you better have a will made out. He can't stand for anything to touch his neck."